What’s to come for the Professional Fighters League, and what might the PFL’s second season look like? League President Carlos Silva dropped some hints at the open workouts in Chicago ahead of PFL 2.
The PFL’s inaugural season just kicked off, and already, there’s talk about expansion. That’s no doubt a good sign, though there’s lots of action remaining in 2018 to get through first. PFL League President Carlos Silva addressed some of that with the media at Tuesday’s open workouts in Chicago, in advance of Thursday’s PFL 2. Among the topics covered: west coast dates, and additional weight classes in 2019.
As for why the PFL went exclusively with east coast cities during its opening round, Silva explained that “we were really excited about Thursday nights, and working with NBC and Facebook.” Which brought about certain challenges. “The thing about Thursday nights,” Silva said, “is if you want to open it up and get it going, it’s a little bit tough because the doors would open so early.”
Ultimately, the PFL “wanted to come to the best cities. We started off in New York, and now we’re in Chicago, and we’re in D.C. next week. It’s just exciting to be in those kinds of iconic cities,” Silva finished. That’s not to say that the PFL will ignore the west coast, as the later rounds of the 2018 season will probably head in that direction.
“We’re likely going to be out west, probably in the next two weeks we’ll announce those,” Silva said. “Likely California, Arizona, Nevada, and possibly one east coast location as well.”
If Silva sounds positive, that’s likely bolstered by the strong reaction to the PFL’s opening night, just a week ago in New York. It was certainly a success in terms of the product presented, with plenty of finishes. “The whole night, I think the fighters really embraced the format,” Silva said of PFL 1. “I think they realized points matter, and they also wanted to show what great fighters they are. So they came out, I think we had four first round knockouts, I think seven finishes, a couple of great decisions too.”
“There were some surprises, guys like Steven Siler, looked like he was in a tough position, got kind of a reverse, got a finish,” the League President continued. “So I think now, all these fighters are thinking ‘what do I need to do to get into the playoffs?’ Because you don’t get a chance to win a million dollars unless you first make the playoffs. I think the road to that started in New York, and we’ll see a little more of that on Thursday night here in Chicago.”
When asked whether the PFL had any plans to add weight classes next year, Silva confirmed that “all those plans are already in place, we’re just not sure yet which plan we’ll go with. We could easily add a 135.”
“You know this year, we’re going from 145 to heavyweight,” he continued, adding “We all saw Kayla here at her open workout, making her debut at 0-0. We could look to add a woman’s division next year.”
“Adding divisions, and also even adding a few more fighters to each division, are all in our plans,” Silva finished. “I think as the season progresses, and we think about [2019], we’ll put all that together.”
The PFL’s 2018 season continues on Thursday night in Chicago with PFL 2, airing live on NBC SN and Facebook.
